Autoblogs Assistant Editor Zac Palmer gives us a quick view of the exterior and interior of the highly anticipated 2020 Toyota GR Supra. The renaissance red Japanese sports car shares similarities to that of the Toyota FT-1 concept. Inside the 2020 Toyota GR Supra is a mix of BMW design with Toyota layout. Check the full story of the 2020 Toyota GR Supra, and more on Autoblog.com
TranscriptZAC PALMER: What's up, guys? Zac Palmer here with Autoblog. Right behind me, the 2020 Toyota Supra. You all know what it looks like. You all know this is it, Renaissance Red.
[ROCK MUSIC PLAYING]
Here we are with the 2020 Toyota Supra. I feel like a kid in a candy shop right now. Very, very bright red, it's called Renaissance Red. This is the first time that we've had a Supra in the office. And yeah, to say I'm excited would be an understatement.
You know, this car has been a long, long time coming. We've obviously all seen the leaks and everything. And now it's here, in the flesh, in front of us, not in an auto show, on the road. Here it is. Obviously, first things first, you know, it looks a whole lot like the FT1 concept that Toyota showed back in, I believe, 2014.
Yeah, I was a lot younger then. But I was completely obsessed with that car's design. That car was a little bigger. It was a little more extreme. But I think that Toyota has done just a glorious job actually translating that concept design into this. You know, the obvious things are there.
You have this nice like three-piece grill down here with a huge snout, super, super distinctive look. But then the headlights, you know, if you're a fan of the Mark 4 Supra, these are sort of like a modern take on the old Supra headlights. And I really, really like it. It's a good combination of old and new right there.
The hood, also super distinctive, you have these strong lines coming through there. You can see them from the driver's seat. And it's a nice indication of where you are on the road. Coming along the side here, you get to what I would call the most distinctive part of the Supra in and of itself. You have these massive rear haunches.
These fenders are some of the coolest rear fenders on a car today I think. And it's accentuated by these fake vents, which we will certainly get to. I have plenty of opinions about those. But then traveling further up the car, you have this awesome double bubble roof. So you see where it's taller for the driver's head, taller for the passenger's head but then scoops down in the center.
So really, really sweet design, there aren't a whole lot of sports cars out there that actually do this weird double bubble roof style. And I really, really dig it. All right. Let's move on to the wheel design, because this is actually one part of the car that I'm not a huge fan of. So this one has these dual black and chrome wheels.
You know, I am never really a huge fan of chrome on wheels and especially on a Japanese sports car. It just doesn't really do it for me. I think it's way too flashy, way too much chrome. You can just get black wheels. And I think that that is the answer for this car, because I think this is a bit too gaudy for what it is.
If it sounds like I like this car, it's because I do. You know, that-- I think the rear design is also fantastic. My favorite two parts probably like number one this duck bill of a spoiler and then the Formula One style triangular square-ish light down there. You know, I think that that combination of things is super, super unique in the sports car world.
You know, it looks like these lines they come back and you have the huge fenders, and then it sort of squints into the massive spoiler. And it ends up turning into like a super, super aggressive stance. When you're standing behind it, you know, the car just looks like it wants to squirm around, and like it has a ton of power. You know, it looks fast.
The actual badging on the thing, Supra, hey, come on. How much more retro can you get right there? And then one badge that'll probably confuse most folks. That GR right there stands for Gazoo Racing, which is, you know, one of Toyota's racing divisions. I'm sure that everybody's heard of TRD before, Toyota Racing Development. But it's not a TRD. It's a GR.
So probably get used to seeing that on more Toyotas. But it's weird because the actual name of the car is the Toyota GR Supra, if you're going to be completely formal with what you're calling it. Way down below you have the dual exhaust, which you know, I haven't actually driven the car yet. But just from revving it up in the parking lot, it sounds awesome.
It's sort of like a BMW but different. It-- it's hard to describe. You know, it has a bit of that, you know, sweet inline six yowl. But then there's some real emotion and flavor in the sound too. But that's just from short revs. We'll see what it's actually like when we're under power. We really, really love the exterior.
But there are a few nits that I can pick with it. One of them being the amount of fake vents on this car. We all love sports cars. We all have real vents. But I am not a huge fan of fake ones. One of the biggest offenders is the Civic Type R. This one is getting close to it, not quite there. But let's check them all out.
So one right there, you got another one right here, big old fake vent. You come here up by the actual hood, here is another fake vent, that-- sitting right there. And then this one, possibly the most egregious of all, this actually had me fooled when they revealed it. I thought it was real. It's not. It's just a piece of plastic right there.
Then you come back around here, you have the same thing going on with the tail lights. You have this weird little vent in here. That you might assume would be, you know, heating, cooling to the brakes or something like that. Unfortunately, it's not. And I think, looking around it, I'm not seeing any other fake vent. You know, we've got this guy. That actually goes through. This goes through. Those are real.
But overall, I don't think that those fake vents actually ruin a really great design. I just think that it could have gone from about like a 95 to maybe like a 98 or 99 without the fake vents.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
What's up, guys? I'm back. And now we're inside the Supra. This is where I've wanted to be for a while. We've been looking at it from the outside for a long time it feels now. But finally inside, and this is where the Toyota distinctiveness I think, you know, is in question.
You hop in here and instantly the whole center stack, the screen, all the buttons, everything feels exactly like a BMW. Toyota has put a bit of its own spin on it. One of the biggest, most important things I believe is the gauge cluster. So let's fire her up here. Good sound, good sound Toyota.
Let's do the seatbelt up, because it's going to yell at us here. But no, so gauge cluster, it's similar but different to the BMW Z4. The BMW you get a fully digital instrument cluster, whereas Toyota has decided to implement some actual physical elements in there. Most important of which is the massive tachometer right in the center, right where it needs to be.
You know, this is, you know, if anybody is looking for a way to do a tachometer on a sports car, this is the way to do it. You want it as legible as possible. You have huge numbers in, you know, big white font on the tach so you know exactly where you are. Perfect if you're on a racetrack, perfect if you're tearing up a back road, I think that that's correct.
The rest of it though I am still not convinced about. The steering wheel especially, not a fan of the actual design of it. The actual feel of the wheel itself I think is actually a huge improvement from most BMWs. Like almost all BMWs nowadays have these massively fixed steering wheels. And, you know, maybe that's your thing. Maybe it's not. I don't really like them.
This has a nice thin rim on it. You know, you can wrap your whole hand around it. It feels good. But the problem is this design, which frankly just sort of looks Corolla-esque. It doesn't really feel like a $50,000 plus sports car. Just this pretty emotionless round blob that you have on it here.
And then, you know, where you might think it would be like a four spoke and some fancy design you could see through here, it's just like a brick of plastic right there. Yeah, not a very special thing to look at. The rest of the interior itself actually there isn't much color at all in here.
There's a lot of sports cars these days, you know, they'll have red accents, orange accents, blue accents, everything. In here, it's-- well, it's all black. You know, the only color you actually get is on-- is on the tachometer. There's a little bit of orange. But no, you get black. And then this one actually has white stitching on the seats.
Speaking of the seats, just sitting in here, it's actually really comfortable. I feel like I'm in a good seating position. See [INAUDIBLE], yep. We've got tilting and a telescoping steering wheel, very nice. You can put it nice and low in your lap, just the way you want it if you're going to be on a fun road. At least that's the way that I like to have it.
And then, you know, one other thing, maybe it's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing. BMW Infotainment, I have not been a fan of pretty much any Toyota Infotainment systems that have come out over the past four or five years. Lexus, just the same, their systems are not exactly the greatest out there. This is definitely the old BMW iDrive.
So this is not the new iDrive 8. This does have the touchscreen. But it is still the old BMW iDrive system. I think it's definitely better and feels more premium to use. It's quicker, just all around better than the Toyota systems. And one thing you get that most Toyotas don't have just some of the trucks and SUVs have now is Apple CarPlay.
Because, you know, there's so much BMW in this car. You actually get wireless Apple CarPlay, which is similar to pretty much every single BMW on the market now. The only problem is you don't get Android Auto. So I am an Android user, Google through and through. But I won't be able to connect my phone to this here infotainment.
But there is one other little smartphone thing down here. It actually has a wireless phone charger, which, you know, it's a nice touch for a small two seater sports car without much interior space. The fact that they actually, you know, took some time to design a wireless phone charger and integrate it within this interior is cool.
The trim itself, it looks like we have carbon fiber on the center-- like center console area here, not seeing it anywhere else though. It's not on the doors. It's not on the steering wheel. It's just sort of like one piece of carbon fiber right here. I think it looks fine. I think it would have been a little nicer maybe if they had carried it along in the dash here instead of using some black plastic. That could have spruced things up, made it look a little nicer.
It's important to realize that Toyota is making this car to a price. This thing starts at just over $50,000. And Toyota really hasn't put any options at all on this. The only option that this has is the premium driver assistance package, that adds things like blindspot assist, adaptive cruise control. Which, eh, you know, those are things you might want in a daily driver. In a sports car, I'm less concerned.
I may even skip that $1,200 option just to, you know, spend more money on an exhaust down the road or just some kind of modification, you know. This thing will ultimately be, you know, super modifiable via tune. Pretty much every new turbo charged BMW is these days.
So far as performance, amenities, things you see on the interior, the shifter is a BMW style toggle shifter right here. If you move it over to the manual mode, down is an up shift, up is a downshift, just the way it should be. Press a little button to go into park. And then if you want to shift using the paddles on the steering wheel, you have these nice-- looks like you have aluminum and also plastic backing on these paddles.
They feel OK. But they don't feel super premium. They're not like a magnesium or an aluminum paddle that you might find in something a little more expensive. And then one of the buttons in here that we should all be paying attention to is the sport button. It's huge. You won't miss it when you want to have some fun.
It's one of only two modes this thing has. It's just normal or sport mode, which I think is a welcome sigh of relief, at least for me. BMW lets you choose like 18 different modes, transmission modes, individual, a million different things to set up the car, you know, to be exactly how you'd like it. You know, you can do eco-pro, normal, comfort, sports, sport plus.
This is just a sport mode. You press it. You hear the exhaust get a little bit louder right there. You know, the shocks stiffen up, the steering gets a little heavier, throttle response is better. Just all the things, you just press one button. And boom, you are set and ready to go on a back road. And I think that's great. I think that we don't need 18 different modes or five-- like five different modes to actually make a car fun to drive.
You know, I have very high hopes that Toyota is able to do it with just one. So that's the interior of the 2020 Toyota Supra. It's good, not great. BMW makes good interiors. So this one's all right. I'll give it an average score.
Interesting, it could be a lot more interesting if Toyota had designed it themselves, gone the full driver-oriented angle of everything just like the Mark 4. That would've been pretty cool. But as it is, you know, cost cutting measures, this is what we get.
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